Vintage 1955 Ford F-100: True Blue American Icon

Ford Performance shines the spotlight on Ford flatbed with 390 hp under the hood.

There are many ways you can go when building a 1955 Ford F-100. You can leave it as you found, but update the running gear. You can turn it into a full-on show truck, mowing the grass on the fairgrounds. You can even turn it into the ultimate rock crawler with big, fat tires and several inches of lift.

Or you can do what Norm Shirley did. Ford Performance presented his take on the ol’ work truck recently, and it is is a thing of beauty. The F-100 Stakeside is tangled up in a lovely shade of Moonlight Blue (a factory color from 1955), the perfect background to allow the chrome trim and wheels to pop, as well as the gorgeous wood of the stakeside bed.

According to Shirley, this truck is a rarity, having been the only stock half-ton F-100 he found in the wrecking yard when he rescued the pickup in 1975. Furthermore, it’s been the only one of three he’s seen since then.

The F-100 is a gem under the hood, too. Shirley says the truck has a 390 V8 paired with a C6 automatic, which sends the power through the Ford 9-inch rear out back. It’s also an award winner, taking home a trophy at a show in Sparks, Nevada back in August 2017. And of course, it’s not the only Ford in Shirley’s life, as he also owns a Mustang, a Ranger, and a motorhome built upon an F-53 chassis.